Once again, the BBC dominates the women's top 10 with four of the five top spots.

As controller of BBC Radio 2 and digital station 6Music, Lesley Douglas has become a powerhouse in populist radio, presiding over the runaway success story of Radio 2.

Boldly pushing the station forward with decisions such as signing loudmouth comic Russell Brand and axing Johnnie Walker's drivetime show, Douglas has driven up the Radio 2 audience by 310,000 year-on-year to 13.25 million.

She rises 28 places from last year's MediaGuardian 100 to settle at number nine as the most powerful woman in the media industry.

Jana Bennett, has sunk three places from last year despite her newly invigorated role as director of BBC Vision, broadening her role from television to multimedia. She now oversees the largest such department in the world.

The top third woman in this year's 100 is yet another long-serving BBC executive - Jenny Abramsky, director of BBC audio and music, though she has slipped slightly compared with 2006.

However, like Bennett, Abramsky has an expanded role overseeing not just radio but podcasts, on-demand content and mobile. She has overseen record growth for BBC Radio and its biggest ever lead over commercial rivals in audience numbers.

Rebekah Wade's fifth year as editor of UK's biggest-selling newspaper has been a good one, overall. Though she slips from third to fourth in this year's chart of top 10 media women, Wade has cemented her reputation with a couple of notable scoops: the cockpit video of a UK soldier being killed by friendly fire and Prince William and Kate Middleton's split.

BBC news director Helen Boaden falls one place this year in the women's top 10. She is credited with restoring morale after the Hutton report and developing a more streamlined operation, but suffered a blow when BBC news lost out at the Royal Television Society awards to commercial rivals in most of the key categories.

Sly Bailey has faced a difficult year, fighting falling circulation and rapidly declining advertising revenues but without a substantial digital strategy to pick up the baton. Staff resent her weighty pay - £1.47m in the past year - but the city regards her as a battler.

Lisa Opie has powered her way up to become the fifth most influential woman in UK media since her appointment last October as managing director of content at Channel Five.

Despite a budget half that of Channel 4 and Five's persistent problem defining its brand, Opie has already made some bold moves, poaching Jay Hunt from the BBC as director of programmes and outbidding the corporation for Neighbours at a cost of £300m over 10 years. She settles at 37 in the top 100.

Pearson chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino continues to hold sway in the chart as pressure mounts for the company to sell the Financial Times.

Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall has shot up this year's chart. Since her appointment in August 2006, McCall has overseen the sell-off of a stake in the Trader Media Group and stated that the group's future lies in its digital services, pledging a £15m investment in Guardian Unlimited.

Another senior BBC player, group finance director Zarin Patel, just makes the list of top 10 media women.

Patel now controls the BBC's considerable purse strings and is faced with eeking out the corporation's disappointing licence fee settlement.

Overall, women still only account for 19 of this year's top 100. That's just one more than 2006 and only one woman, Douglas, makes the overall top 10.

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